Washington and Moscow should agree to an 80 per cent cut in nuclear arsenals over the next decade to help encourage smaller atomic powers to engage in multilateral arms control negotiations, says a former top US general.

Amid signs that President Barack Obama wants to press ahead with fresh arms talks with Russia, General James Cartwright, the now-retired former vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former head of Strategic Command, argues that the US should reduce its arsenal to 900 nuclear weapons by 2022.

In a paper published by Global Zero, a movement endorsed by Mr Obama that is committed to eliminating nuclear weapons, Gen Cartwright says the US and Russia should cut their nuclear weapons from the current level of 5,000 each – in active deployed and reserve arsenals – to about 900 within 10 years.